Within an era of increasing specialization, time constraints, and fiscal accountability, the role of each medical practitioner logically narrows. The sense then evolves of an intense but circumscribed professional responsibility, whereby the outcome is either to effect remediation or cure or to render the most enlightened opinion for a problem or constellation of clinical problems.
The consequence, however, is a tendency for compartmentalizing of patient needs and for failure of sensitive dialogue with each patient regarding the individual's perception of the problem. Somewhere between competence and intention, the more personal, intimate patient needs become submerged or subordinated, but ultimately are reflected as failures of compliance or treatment, or "doctor hopping." Sexual Aspects of Cardiovascular Disease is a consummate testament to these individual needs, concerns, and quality-of-life issues that must be satisfied in each case for treatment to be deemed successful.
The scope of this compact, thoroughly referenced volume ranges from